One stereotype about Jeff Boschee’s neck of the woods happens to be true.
Yes, Kansas University’s junior shooting guard says, it does get awfully cold during the winter in North Dakota.
As to another stereotype the Valley City, N.D., player has heard during his college years. …
“The thing I get the most is, ‘Did you ride horses and covered wagons to school?”‘ Boschee said with a laugh. “People think we’re socially different. It’s just like everywhere else.”
Valley City, N.D., may not be the Big Apple, but it’s the proud home of Boschee, the only McDonald’s All-American in North Dakota high school history.
One of his state’s basketball teams the University of North Dakota, where his older brother Mike played treks to Kansas on Friday for a 7 p.m. NCAA Div. I-II battle at Allen Fieldhouse.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s my home territory, where my brother (Gustavus-Adophus assistant coach) played,” Boschee said. “A lot of kids from North Dakota don’t get to come down and play in a big time arena like Allen Fieldhouse. The experience of playing here I’m sure will mean a lot to them.”
The University of North Dakota is located in Grand Forks, about 80 miles from Valley City and a 12-hour drive from Lawrence.
The name Boschee is big in Grand Forks not just because of Jeff and his nationally televised exploits, but Mike, who led coach Rich Glas’ second Fighting Sioux team to the NCAA Div. II Final Four back in 1990.
“I just talked to Mike today,” Glas said Wednesday. “I said, ‘C’mon, give me some hints.’ He said, ‘Tie your pants on tight.’
“I already know that. I told our guys, ‘They put their pants on the same way we do. They just pull them up two-feet higher.”‘
Two buses of fans one from Valley City and one from Grand Forks will be headed here for the game.
Fan involvement will be greater in a year when Boschee and KU return the game and play the first basketball game in the university’s soon-to-be-opened 12,000-seat facility.
“Fans are really excited about next Dec. 1 when Kansas is coming to play in our new convention center and stadium,” Glas said. “I keep telling people that’d be like Florida State coming in here to play football this weekend. It’s going to be a pretty big deal.”
Jeff Boschee will be a returning hero in December 2001.
“Jeff is one of our big Sioux fans,” Glas said. “I remember him running in the bleachers with my son at our games. Unfortunately for us he got too good and couldn’t come to UND. We knew if he had the opportunity going major college it’s what he’d do. Everybody’s excited for him. It gives the others the idea if one can do it, others can, too.”
Glas will see the new Boschee the one with hair on Friday.
Unless, of course, Jeff decides to shave his head. Jeff started the practice of shaving his head before games in ninth grade and continued the trend through two years of college. He let his hair grow out this past offseason and has kept a short styled look. After years of hair talk, the topic is definitely growing old for Boschee.
“The hair thing is unreal,” he said. “I think I’ll just shave it off so I get no more questins on it.”
KU junior John Crider will miss two to three weeks of practice because of a torn quadriceps muscle in his right leg, coach Roy Williams announced Wednesday. The Horton native has been bothered by the leg injury the last several weeks. It’s believed Crider intends on transferring to Washburn, though nobody is commenting on the matter. Williams says when there’s something to report, he’ll report it.
KU frosh Mario Kinsey, who was in bed with stomach flu Tuesday, practiced Wednesday.
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